Business travel tip: Look for security "fast lanes"

I was recently in Salt Lake City, and finally got a chance to test the experience-based security lanes rolled out on a test basis back in February.

There are three lines, identified by symbols used to mark the experience needed for ski trails:

• Green circle: beginners and families with small children and strollers;
• Blue square: intermediate travelers who don't fly very frequently;
• Black diamond: expert travellers who are very familiar with airport procedures.

The lines were well marked and it was easy to choose one. The families seemed to be using the green circle lane, which got them out of the regular flow nicely. But everyone else seemed to consider themselves an expert.  The intermediate, blue square line was almost empty.

And, wouldn't you know it, the person ahead of me in line in the "expert" lane didn't know to take her laptop out of the computer case before it went through X-ray.

Still, the lines seem to be an improvement.

I fly on American a lot because my home airport is Dallas Fort Worth International, a hub city for American. They've just announced a new program starting next month called Priority AAcess  (they love those AA's) that creates a priority boarding lane for frequent flyers. And for the past month, I've been enjoying early boarding anyway, as I just reached the AAdvantage Gold frequent flyer level and am always in Group 1 for boarding (but still behind First Class passengers and AAdvantage Platinum members).

I don't want to get into the politics of multiple classes of service, but I think the TSA scheme was done correctly. It's not based on how much money you have, but how likely you are to hold up others in the line.